Picture Book Review: You Can Sit with Me

This is a sweet story about kindness and being a friend. It's the perfect book to share. There aren't many words on the page, making this an accessible story. 

This is a must have book for your library's collection. 

Mood Board: You Had Me @ Hello World

While this book was a romance, it dealt with a lot of heavy moments.

Abuse

Being kicked out of home

Escape

Finding a path for yourself

Rescuing your family

Following your passion

Standing up for yourself

Saying no to people

None of that is easy, but all of that is in this book.

It was a good book, but the ending was a little bit rushed. I wish there was another chapter or two.

 

Review: Cruel Summer

 

Their freshman year of high school is over and big summer plans are in the works:

TS is going to London with her posh girlfriend Gemma. Only, she doesn't realize just how posh Gemma really is or how rude her family can be.

Tay is performing with her band and hopefully getting an opening spot, if everyone in the band can agree on their set list.

Teffy is happy with her boyfriend, but once she tells her parents, the secret will be out. Is she ready for more people to know about them?

Taylor is heading to summer camp, but unfortunately so is her ex-boyfriend. What goes from a happy summer quickly becomes horrific....

My Thoughts: The sequel to Love Stories is just as drama filled as the first book. There is plenty of love for Taylor Swift, friendship drama, and romance. I love how these friends support each other through thick and thin. I didn't want to put this book down. I hope there are more in the works about this friend group.

And Easter Egg: Whispering Pines camp in from Jen Calonita's (The Taylor's 0.5) book:

Cover Thoughts: Adorable

Source: My Library

Library Recommendation: Must have books for your school and public library for your Taylor Swift fans.

Picture Book Review: MousterWorks

 

Two mice and their grandmother visit a museum and see lots of famous paintings. But none of them have any cheese and poor Pepin is hungry. 

The two mice are hidden in each work of art, making this book one to pour over the gorgeous illustrations. 

The author has a website, with more information about the pictures chosen, her art process, and the mice. 

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Quotes

 This week's topic us favorite lines. I have a few:

I thought I had a few more, but it's clear I need to make some more.

Middle Grade Review: Treasure of Ocean Parkway

* Book 2 in the series *

Thea discovers a clue hidden in a closet in her apartment. She knows exactly who should help her solve it - the podcasters from her apartment building. She finds Roya and Amin and pitches them the idea, a new mystery for their next podcast.

The clue is a treasure hunt from her grandfather. Her dad won't talk about him; they don't have a good relationship. Currently her grandfather lives in a home for people with dementia. The clues are supposed to lead to a treasure within the apartment building. 

Can they solve the clues and find the treasure or is it lost forever?

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed this sequel. I felt bad for Thea as she was lonely without her sister for company and she barely saw her parents.  I love that she gave from a long time of artists. I love how she became friends with Roya and Amin over the course of figuring out the puzzles. I love how the puzzles here related to the building and also art. Amin's train contest was a fun side story. I love how they set this up for another book in the series. I hope there are several more in the works. 

Cover Thoughts: Cute

Source: My Library

Why I Read This One: I loved the first book - and the combination of mysteries and podcasts

Library Recommendation: Highly Recommended for your middle grade collections.

Plant a Seed: Teen Summer Reading (3)

This is the final post for SUMMER READING ideas. 

Previously I shared flower crafts and nature crafts

This week is all about the books.

Middle Grade Books:

Teen Books:

Hope you enjoyed this series and that it was useful to you.

Picture Book Review: The Humble Pie

Pie is humble - he doesn't need to be in the spotlight. His friend Cake loves the spotlight. But when they are teamed up for a project, Pie gets annoyed. Can he have a difficult conversation with his friend? Will his friend still like him?

This is such a great book for those kids who don't love the limelight. Sometimes you do want to be recognized for your work. But there is a fine line. Pie walks this line well, but he challenges himself a little bit.

Review: Heart Check

 

Harper hates the hockey team; they're just a bunch of cocky sports guys. They get all the funding, and the rest of the school gets close to nothing. When the hockey coach gets fired, rumors fly that Harper's responsible. Now her jewelry making business is in jeopardy. 

Dawson knows he's a hockey superstar. But that won't mean anything if he can't get a scholarship to play hockey. He doesn't want to end up like his father, reliving his glory days while stuck in town. The loss of his coach and all his contacts is stressing out Dawson. The new coach isn't interesting in making him feel special. He's giving other guys on the team a chance. Dawson doesn't like his odds.

Harper and Dawson get thrown together. They start talking and realize that first impressions aren't always right. As they catch feelings for each other, they have to learn to trust each other. Or their new relationship just might be over before it started.

My Thoughts: I loved this book. It totally made me cry. I loved the slow burn between Dawson and Harper as they fought against their feelings. I loved Harper's jewelry business and I want to see pictures of the jewelry described. I loved Dawson's sister. I loved Sabrina. The hockey moments were great. I loved watching the team come together. This debut novel impressed the heck out of me and I can't wait read what Emily Charlotte writes next. 

Cover Thoughts: Cute

Source: My Library

Why I Read This Book: I love sports romances

Library Recommendation: Highly recommended for your school and public library collections.

Review: The Snowman Code

 

Blessing is having a tough time. She was being bullied at school; she stopped going. She told her teacher they were moving to Australia. The winter has been going on for so long and her mom has SAD. Blessing desperately wants the winter to end. 

Everything changes when Blessing meets a snowman: Albert Framlington. Once you talk to a snowman six times, they have to answer. It's part of the snowman code. Blessing and Albert for a friendship and begin to help one another through their troubles. 

On the one hand, Blessing wants winter to end so her mom will feel better. On the other hand, she doesn't want the winter to end so Albert won't melt.

My Thoughts: I really liked this book. I loved the friendship between Blessing and Albert. I love how they worked together. They had fights, but they still helped each other. This book tackles bullies, mental health, being scared, and friendship. I loved all the snowmen. Warning: this book might make you want to build and talk to snowmen.

Cover Thoughts: Cute

Source: Sent for review

Library Recommendation: Highly recommended for your Children's Library - school or public.

Picture Book Review: Biographies for Black History Month

 

Here are a few great picture book biographies - for all year, but also for Black History Month 

Barbara lived in a world of can not cannot. She learned about the world from books and found big dreams. She learned how to make her dreams come true and she trained hard.

There's a great message here: never give up. She's so inspiring. A fantastic read about making your dreams happen. 

Carter Woodson did not have an easy life but he never stopped learning. He challenged a professor who said that Black people had no history and he spent the rest of his life sharing that history.

A great book about one person changing history and challenging the reader that they too can make a different. 

When Patrick Kelly was a boy, he lost a button on his shirt. His mother sewed another one on for him, but it didn't match. Then she sewed a bunch more on the shirt so that the other kids wouldn't laugh at him. Patrick Kelly realized the power of fashion and the importance of looking good makes you feel good. He decided he wanted to learn how to sew.

I loved this story - there's so much joy here. I confess, I didn't know about Patrick Kelly. I did a little more research on him and saw pictures of the clothes he made. And they do make people smile. Mission accomplished. 

Shay wants to be just like Tina Turner. When the town has a festival for Tina, she and her friends are going to perform. But when they're practicing, they get into a big fight. Luckily, Shay's grandmother shares some wisdom from Tina to help save the day.

While this isn't a biography of Tina Turner, it does share lots of information about her. Her life influences Shay to be the best she can be. 

Top Ten Tuesday: Armchair Travel

 This week's topic is armchair travel. Here are a few books I can't wait to read and visit.

hiking in California

Rafting in Colorado

Southern Italy

More Italy - Rome

More Rome

Southern France

Paris

Tour of Europe

Genovia

On a cruise ship

Where will your books take you this year?

Middle Grade Monday: James Ponti Author Event

 

On Friday, I went to RJ Julia's to see James Ponti and Alyson Gerber.

I've seen James Ponti a few times before and he never disappoints. 

Read my recaps of each event:

Time 1

Time 2

Time 3

I reviewed EUROPA already, I adore this series.

The room was packed, which was nice to see.

Themes:

James writes four themes in his books:

1. Family Drama

2. Mystery

3. Action/Adventure

4. Humor 

* He writes about Family because of his own story.

Writing Advice:

1. Write something small and work up to a book - it's like training for a marathon, you don't go out and decide to run a marathon in one day. You have to build up to it. It's the same thing with writing. 

2. Read your world aloud. You will catch more mistakes that way - of even strangely worded scenes.

On Coming up with the concept for The Sherlock Society

There’s a lake near his house. There are nine benches around the lake. One day, he decided to walk about the lake to plot his book. At each bench, he would stop and ask a question. Each question would be harder than the last and he couldn’t leave the bench until he solved the answer to the question.

Example: The new book would be a mystery.

The kids would get around Florida thanks to their Grandfather.

Why would he be taking them around to solve mysteries? He had a vested interested as a former investigative journalist.

After two laps around the lake, he had the book figured out.

Book three: Art Attack comes out in September and I'm so looking forward to it!  

Why Europa is Dedicated to Suzanne:

When James was coming up with the idea for the Shakespeare Code, he remembered a conversation with former co-worker Suzanne Collins. He wrote her a quick note about it. She immediately called him up. They had the same conversation again and then spent time figuring out the code for this book. 

Our newest pictures:

Alyson was busy with other readers, so we didn't get a chance to talk, sadly. 

But what another fun night! 

Plant a Seed: Teen Summer Reading (2)

 

Last week we talked about FLOWER CRAFTS, this week, we have more craft ideas for teen programs.

Again, these are all from Pinterest:

Nature Crafts:

Origami Mushrooms

Origami Cactus

Aroma Stones

Wind Chimes

Origami Dragonfly

Paper Fern

Suncatchers

Beaded Plant

Flower Collage

Come back next week and we'll talk about teen books!